More stamping & trimming last night. Trying to finish up some of my last pieces before I need to switch to drying, firing, glazing & firing again!

Bowl #1 –

Bowl #2 –

Bowl #3 –

Bowl #4 –

Those who really pay attention to my blog might remember that there were six large bowls in this latest batch. Where are the other two one may ask?! Well… there’s a very god chance they might show up in a video format some time soon. Allegedly…

Tonight I tackled my newest batch of vases. I threw them on Sunday and they’ve been wrapped up since then. Tonight I stamped them for some great surface decoration. Some with “banded” patterns on the shoulder of the vase. Others with a full texture all the way down to the bottom.

Vase #1 

Vase #2

Vase #3

Vase #4

Vase #5

Vase #6

Vase #7

Vase #8

So for now they’re stamped and wrapped.
Tomorrow I’ll do some trimming and adding of colored slip accents.

Tonight I continued working some decorative “details” onto the bowls that I threw for my class Tuesday night. As a quick reminder, we started the class demo with a tutorial on how to make a nice bowl “on purpose” instead of a cylinder gone bad. I then threw fourteen more bowls and then had the students rejoin the demo for some quick altering & decorating tricks. What started out as 15 very basic round bowls quickly gets transformed into 15 unique bowls with just a few alterations.

So you know I sometimes have ‘trouble” deciding when something is done. You may have noticed that I have a slight tendency to continue embellishing well beyond the norm. With that said, I continued decorating tonight in my studio. The blog post prior to this will show you what the bowls looked like before this evening’s festivities!!! While this post shows you the bowls after stamping, as well as the stamp that did the “magic” impressions!

Bowl #1 –

Bowl #2 –

Bowl #3 –

Bowl #4 –

Bowl #5 –

Bowl #6 –

Bowl #7 –

Bowl #9 –

Bowl #10 –

Bowl #10 –

And now they’re “done”… at least for tonight. Under wraps…
hoping to trim them and do a bit of final detailing tomorrow night.

Another night. Another batch.
Stamped and waiting to be trimmed & “handled.”

And some of the stamps that did the “magic”…

Well, it’s been awhile now… and time for another VIDEO on YouTube!!!
What with the Academy Awards coming in two weeks and all…

This time I tackled a softer platter than I’m accustomed to.
I threw the platter as a demo during my Tuesday night wheelthrowing class. It sat out during class and stiffened up more than I expected. So I brought it up to my studio, sprayed it really well with water and wrapped it up. Maybe too well.

As you know, timing is everything. And I knew that I had a certain “window of opportunity” to do some stamping… otherwise it might be too dry if I put it off any longer. So I forged ahead… and it was a little sticky. Typically I like the pot to be on the softer end of the “leather-hard” spectrum. But this one may have been a smidge too soft. If you watch closely, you can see the stamp sticking a bit… and more apparent, my fingers were sticking to the clay too!

But I decided to forge ahead… knowing that it might stick too much or slump too much.
It’s just clay, right?!

Click here to go to YouTube for “Another Stamped Platter.”

Today was another productive day in the studio. Lots of new cylinders for another batch of mugs. This time slightly larger made from B-Clay. Throw a bunch of cylinders… then you need to stamp a LOT of cylinders too!!! Se here goes…

Mug One.

Mug Two.

Mug Three.

Mug Four.

Mug Five.

Mug Six.

Mug Seven.

Mug Eight.

Mug Nine.

Mug Ten.

Mug Eleven.

Mug Twelve.

Mug Thirteen.

Mug Fourteen.

Mug Fifteen.

Mug Sixteen.

Mug Seventeen.

Mug Eighteen.

Mug Nineteen.

Mug Twenty.

So now they’ve all been stamped… and trimmed today as well!
I’m hoping to get back into the studio tomorrow to add handles to them all.
That is if the impending snow storm doesn’t keep me away?!

Okay, so I found it too tough to limit myself to 3 photos a day like was supposed to for the Facebook Portfolio Challenge. So I bumped it up to five. Still struggling… so it’s two posts a day?! And this one stretches it even further with TEN images of freshly stamped, leatherhard clay. My favorite stage of the whole process!!!

Tonight I played with my latest porcelain cylinders. Sure, they were still a little wetter than I wanted them to be. And I kinda knew that I should wait to stamp them. But I also know I have plans tomorrow night and wouldn’t be able to get back to them until later this weekend. So either I do them while they’re a bit squishy… or risk it and see if they dry too fast. I went for stamping them sooner than later. Carefully…

For the most part they turned out pretty good. It was a little bit tougher, and I had to work with a gentler touch. There’s a few tiny issues here & there… some of them need a little touching up when I do trimming & handle attachments.

Cup One…

Cup Two…

Cup Three…

Cup Four…

Cup Five…

Cup Six…

Cup Seven…

Cup Eight…

Cup Nine…

Cup Ten…

Cup Eleven…

Cup Twelve…

So now they’re all stamped and wrapped up. Waiting for them to stiffen up a bit more Drying to a state when I can start trimming. And then handles…

Tonight was the second pottery class of the new session for my Beginning Wheel students. And they’ve already tackled my two favorites… making mugs & making stamps!!! We’re off to a good start… and we still have eight more weeks to cover everything else!!!

As always, I’m starting off the New Year with another batch of New Stamps!
It felt great to get back in the studio and to get my hands dirty again!!!